The death toll from the earthquake that hit central Italy has risen to 247, Italy's civil protection agency announced last night.

As many as 20,000 people are feared dead as a result of yesterday’s earthquake in of south-eastern Iran. The country suffers frequent earthquakes and people tend to adopt a somewhat fatalistic approach, making little effort to ensure that their buildings are as earthquake-resistant as possible. Instead, they look on what happens as “the will of Allah”.